Today in History for May 13, 2015

Fridtjof Nansen

May 13, 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia was settled as a colony of England.

May 13, 1648 - Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck.

May 13, 1778 - In Pennsylvania, Oneida Indians arrived to aid Marquis de Lafayette.

May 13, 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed 11 ships full of convicts on Jan. 18, 1788 at Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.

May 13, 1807 - Connecticut Patriot Eliphalet Dyer passed away at the age of 85 at his home in Windham, Conn. He had won many elections to the colonial assembly between 1747 to 1784 and served in the Stamp Act Congress.

May 13, 1821 - The first practical printing press was patented in the U.S. by Samuel Rust.

May 13, 1846 – The United States declares war on Mexico, leading to the Mexican-American War.

May 13, 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. It was visible to the naked eye for approximately three months.

May 13, 1861 – During the Civil War, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway states as having belligerent rights and declared Britain’s neutrality in the war.

May 13, 1861 - Union troops occupied Baltimore, Maryland.

May 13, 1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, stole through Confederate lines and was passed to the Union by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.

May 13, 1862 – Third Sgt. Joseph G. Sanders, aka “The Turncoat of Dale County,” was elected to be the captain and commander of his company. He participated with his regiment in the Seven Days Battle, the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded and was subsequently absent sick for 31 days in December 1862. Returning to his unit in January 1863, he accompanied them to Port Royal, Va., where he continued to serve until July 20, 1863 (just after the Battle of Gettysburg), when his health allegedly began to fail. Accordingly, he requested and obtained a medical furlough to return to his home in Dale County, which was granted on Oct. 9, 1863.

May 13, 1863 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant began his advance toward Jackson, Miss. on his drive to take Vicksburg.

May 13, 1864 - Twenty hours of fighting ceased at the “Bloody Angle,” just before dawn at Spotsylvania. The battle continued until May 19.

May 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Resaca began with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.

May 13, 1865 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ended with a Confederate victory.

May 13, 1867 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years in prison for his role in the American Civil War.

May 13, 1874 - Author Maude McKnight Lindsay was born in Tuscumbia, Ala.

May 13, 1887 – Conecuh County, Ala. claimed the Burnt Corn post office rather than Monroe County. Hugh T. Fountain was postmaster at the time. Three years later, it was again in Monroe County when Fountain was appointed again as postmaster on June 6, 1890.

May 13, 1890 – Monroe County Probate Judge and State Senator E.T. “Short” Millsap born in Evergreen, Ala.

May 13, 1894 - Author Emma Gelders Sterne was born in Birmingham, Ala.

May 13, 1905 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt opened the White House Conservation Conference in Washington, DC.

May 13, 1907 – Novelist Daphne du Maurier was born in London, England.

May 13, 1911 - The New York Giants set a Major League Baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the game against St. Louis. Fred Merkle of the New York Giants also recorded six RBI in one inning.

May 13, 1914 – The large, stone Confederate monument on The Quad at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was erected by the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

May 13, 1914 - Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber," was born near LaFayette, Ala. In 1926 the family moved to Detroit and Louis began boxing. Louis held the world heavyweight boxing title from 1937 to 1948 and made a division record 25 successful title defenses. His matches in 1936 and 1938 against Max Schmeling of Germany were seen by many as heroic fights between the democratic free world and the Nazi forces. Louis died in 1981.

May 13, 1915 – The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala. reported that Prof. G.A. Harris had been re-elected to another term as Monroe County High School’s principal.

May 13, 1917 – Three peasant children reported the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima (the Virgin Mary) in Fátima, Portugal.

May 13, 1928 - Author Thomas McAfee was born in Haleyville, Ala.

May 13, 1930 – Norwegian scientist, explorer, academic and Nobel Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen died of a heart attack at the age of 68 in Polhøgda, Lysaker, Norway. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, cross-country skiing on the island, and won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his North Pole expedition of 1893–96. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

May 13, 1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States was launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.

May 13, 1944 – Scottish judge and explorer Sir Crispin Agnew, 11th Baronet, was born. As an active climber and mountaineer and member of the Alpine Club, he was involved with the army's policy of developing adventurous training for soldiers of all ranks. He took part in or led a number of expeditions, including expeditions to Api Himal in 1980, Everest in 1976, Nuptse Himal in 1975, the Northern Ice-cap, Chilean Patagonia in 1972/73, Elephant Island, Antarctica in 1970/71 and Greenland in 1968 and 1966.

  

May 13, 1953 - Willie Mays and Darryl Spencer, both on the New York Giants, each hit two home runs and a triple in the same game.

May 13, 1955 - Mickey Mantle hit three consecutive home runs.

May 13, 1958 - Stan Musial became the eighth player in Major League history to get 3,000 hits.

May 13, 1958 – Ben Carlin became the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having traveled over 11,000 miles by sea and 39,000 miles by land during a 10-year journey.

May 13, 1963 – Poet Kathleen Jamie was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland.

May 13, 1964 – Satirist and TV host Stephen Colbert was born in Washington, D.C.

May 13, 1967 - Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run.

May 13, 1972 - The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3, in 22 innings. The game was actually started on May 12.

May 13, 1982 - The Chicago Cubs became the first Major League Baseball team to win 8,000 games.

May 13, 1983 - Reggie Jackson became the first Major League player to strike out 2,000 times.

May 13, 1985 - Carlton Fisk became the fifth catcher in Major League history to steal 100 bases.

May 13, 1985 - Tony Perez became the oldest Major League Baseball player to hit a grand slam home run at the age of 42 and 11 months.

May 13, 1991 - At Yankee Stadium fans sang Madonna's song "Like a Virgin" to Jose Canseco.

May 13, 1994 – Episode No. 24 of “The X-Files” – entitled “The Erlenmeyer Flask” – aired for the first time.

May 13, 1994 - The Cleveland Indians began an 18-game win streak.

May 13, 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

May 13, 1999 – The Furman Historic District in Furman in Wilcox County, Ala. was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The district’s boundaries are roughly Old Snow Hill Road, Wilcox County Road 59, Burson Road, and AL 21. It contains 1,030 acres, 73 buildings, and 14 structures.

May 13, 2000 - Alabama author Fred Bonnie died in Spartanburg, S.C.

May 13, 2006 – Right-handed pitcher Christopher Scottie Booker of Monroeville, Ala. made his first and only appearance for the Kansas City Royals.